The backlash against Bioware/EA’s Mass Effect DRM has resulted in a successful conclusion, it seems. Bioware has announced that they have reworked the DRM and will no longer require reauthorization every 10 days.

If you’d like to play the PC version of Bioware/EA’s hit XBOX 360 title “Mass Effect,” you’d better have an internet connection. Why? Because in order to remain “activated” the game will need to reauthorize itself via the internet every 10 days. Go 11 days without checking in and your game won’t work until you do. Some gamers are saying that this requirement makes them feel like criminals, and doesn’t make a lot of sense for a game that otherwise doesn’t require an internet connection.

A Pizza Hut delivery driver with a valid handgun permit has been fired after he shot an armed robber who put a gun to his head and demanded he turn over his cash. Now an Iowa state senator is calling for a boycott of Pizza Hut:

“You tell me any Iowan that was in his situation, that had a gun put to his head, how they would’ve reacted differently,” state Sen. Brad Zaun of Urbandale said. “I think it’s the wrong decision by Pizza Hut and I will not be buying any more Pizza Hut products.”

Pizza Hut says it’s against company policy for delivery drivers to carry guns, even with a valid permit.

Flickr has added the ability to upload 90 second video clips! Cool, right? Apparently not. A group called “We Say NO to Videos On Flickr” has more than 25,000 members and appears to be going strong. These disgruntled users fear that video will cause the site to slow down and attract the dreaded “YouTube crowd.”

Swedish vodka maker, Absolut has pulled a controversial advertisement that showed a map of the United States and Mexico as they were before the Mexican American War. The advertisement read “In An Absolut World.”

Creative Labs heard your chest-beating across the internet and decided to reinstate spurned developer Daniel_K less than a week after booting him from their forums. Unlike Creative, Daniel_K issued drivers that allowed Creative sound cards to work properly under Vista, and even enabled previously crippled features. The drivers were downloaded over 100,000 times. The company thanked the developer by accusing him of “enabling our technology and IP to run on sound cards for which it was not originally offered or intended, [in] effect, stealing our goods.” Even though he has been reinstated, Daniel_K is still pissed.

Creative’s executive team will be coming in to quite a mess Monday morning, thanks to its VP of Screw Ups, Phil O’Shaughnessy. Friday morning, he posted a warning on the Creative customer forums that told programmer Daniel_K to stop writing his own drivers for their X-Fi sound cards. The cards still won’t work on Vista over a year after the OS was released, because Creative hasn’t released drivers for them—but by Mr. O’Shaughnessy’s account, Daniel_K is “stealing” from Creative by making the cards work. Then the weekend happened.

Etsy.com calls itself “your place to buy and sell things handmade” and is a pretty cool website that we personally enjoy. The sellers who use the site, however, are getting all riled up after several stores were shut down without notice due to simple, easily-resolved complaints from buyers.

A few days ago Starbucks started their new “skinny” drink program. Ordering a drink “skinny” means you’d like sugar-free syrup, non-fat milk, and no whip cream. We didn’t write about it because, um, you can already order that if you want , and we figured you didn’t really care that a basic drink order had a new marketing nickname.

There’s a bit of backlash going on against Southwest Airlines’ for changing their “family first” boarding policy. Previously, families traveling with children under 4 were allowed to board before the “a” group. Now they’ve been bumped back behind “a” but before “b” and “c.”

Chicagoans don’t like change. (Take Wrigley Field, for example, in all its jumbotron-less glory.) Yes, they are a strange, stubborn people who do not eat ketchup on hot dogs and who put the sauce on top of their pizza. And they don’t like Macy’s. Why? Because Macy’s did away with Marshall Field’s.